A puppet on strings preaching to the choir!
Governor Sam Brownback took to the stage at the meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council to celebrate his successful 4 years of service to the group. After all, he worked on at least 15 ALEC written bills in the year 2013 alone. He even proved his loyalty to ALEC by staying the course in the face of a Moody’s credit downgrade. His favors to ALEC include denying Medicaid expansion, starving our public schools, stripping worker rights, and gutting our income tax structure.
The Governor could not do it alone, of course. He needed the tireless work of the
47 ALEC members in his hand chosen House and Senate. And don’t forget lobbyist/State worker/lobbyist David Kensinger, who eased the negotiation process by working both sides of the Medicaid privatization table. Then there’s ALEC scholar (cough) Arthur B. Laffer, who served as a paid consultant to Sam on the income tax cut. And last but not least, the deep pockets of the Koch brothers and other poorly named groups like “Kansans for No Income Tax,” which is funded by Missouri gajillionaire Rex A. Sinquefield.
Despite the damage inflicted by these policies Governor Kickback never wavered. When education experts warned that poor funding would leave our kids behind, he cut again. When the Supreme Court ruled for higher funding, he gave them property tax cuts. And when the Fed offered to return $5.3 billion to expand Medicaid, he said no thanks; we’ll pay for it ourselves; again.
Most impressive to ALEC was the Governor’s ability to stay on message even in the face of reality. When April tax revenues came in $92 million short he remembered his training and delivered...
“The failed economic policies of the Obama administration are affecting states throughout the nation.”
Faced with tough questions about the role of ALEC and lobbyists within the Brownback administration the Governor made clear that the whole thing is simply overblown…
"They do model legislation, they have meetings, but there are probably hundreds of groups that do model legislation and hold meetings. I think it gets overblown a lot," Brownback said during an interview Monday with the Lawrence Journal-World.
Bravo Governor. Maybe next year you can get the ALEC lifetime achievement award.
Update- take a moment to watch Rachel break down the oligarchy by state. Kansas is the center of this crisis. http://www.msnbc.com/...
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